Denmark's Saxo Bank to have China's Geely as new shareholder

COPENHAGEN — Denmark's Saxo Bank Group announced on Friday that it received and agreed on an offer from China's Geely Group to become a key shareholder of the bank with about 30 percent stake.

Lars Seier Christensen, co-founder of Saxo, a leading Danish multi-asset trading and financial-technology firm, has received an offer and agreed to sell his stake of 25.71 percent of the bank to Geely International Hong Kong, a subsidiary of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co Ltd, also known as Geely Group, the bank said in a statement.

Certain minority shareholders are expected to sell their stakes to Geely, which is expected to own 30 percent of Saxo on completion, according to the statement.

The deal is pending, among other things, regulatory approvals and financial terms of the transaction are expected to be finalized by the fourth quarter of 2017.

"Geely Group has shown an impressive ability to foster sharp and solid profitable growth in their portfolio companies, and it has a deep understanding of Scandinavian business values and culture," said Kim Fournais, Saxo co-founder and CEO, in the statement. Fournais also owns 25.71 percent of the bank.

"I am confident that partnering with Geely creates an even stronger foundation to capitalize on the many global opportunities and not least in the growing Chinese and Asian markets," Fournais added.

Daniel Donghui Li, chief financial officer and executive vice president of Geely Group, said the company expects to expand its activities in the financial services sector through this transaction.

"We expect to deliver group synergies from the development of financial services both within Geely Group and the wider Chinese market," Li said.

Saxo Bank is a multi-asset trading and investment specialist, offering a complete set of trading and investment technologies, tools and strategies.

Founded in 1992 and headquartered in Copenhagen, Saxo Bank employs more than 1,500 people in financial centers around the world including London, Singapore, Paris, Zurich, Dubai and Tokyo.

The company established a China office in Shanghai in 2015, and has since then signed extensive financial technology partnerships.

Saxo Bank is also owned by US fund TPG Capital with 29.26 percent and some minority shareholders.

Based in East China's Zhejiang province, Geely Group consists of three sub groups and companies: Geely Auto Group, Volvo Cars and Geely Commercial Vehicles. It has revenue of more than $26 billion and total assets of more than $24 billion in 2016.